'Emancipation' should have taken its cue from Will Smith's quiet, powerful performance

The alligator is what got me.

“Emancipation,” Antoine Fuqua’s well-meaning and graphic depiction of an enslaved man who escapes in search of Lincoln’s army and freedom for himself and his family, is a mostly affecting, no-holds-barred look at degradation, inhumanity and, ultimately, inspiration.

But at times — too many times — “Emancipation” also plays like an action-adventure movie.

Will Smith stars as Peter — the character and the film are based on the much-seen real-life photo of an enslaved man with his obscenely scarred back facing the camera often known as “The Scourged Back." He often finds himself in dilemmas that require MacGyver-like skills to get out of. Sometimes it feels appropriate. Peter is not only far more intelligent than most of his pursuers give him credit for being, he’s far more intelligent than they are, period. So it makes sense that he would know how to cauterize a wound, for instance, or know how to throw a hunting dog off the scent.

But when he’s clambering out of swamp water onto land and an alligator snatches him, leading to a fight for survival, it’s just too much.

Happy we're here:29 reasons why we're thankful to live in Arizona — from America's best pizza to Route 66

Fuqua's action-adventure elements undercut the story

The problem is, it needn’t be. For much of the film Fuqua shows us the torturous agony Peter, his family and the other enslaved people are put through. Their acts of survival are superhuman. The story doesn’t need action-hero trappings. Just living is a miracle.

When the film begins Peter works with his family on a Louisiana cotton plantation. It’s March 1863, and Lincoln has already signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Not that this does Peter and the rest of the enslaved people on the plantation any good, as the plantation owners simply ignore the proclamation and continue on as before.

Peter is a religious man; he’s praying with his wife Dodienne (Charmaine Bingwa) and their children when we first see him. He’s then thrown into a wagon and carted off to a labor camp, where he and other men build a railroad line for movement of Confederate cannons.

The work is brutal, unimaginably so. Some toil until they literally fall over dead and another enslaved man must toss their bodies onto a growing pile in a ditch.

Peter, along with Gordon (Gibert Owuor), John (Michael Lowoye) and Tomas (Jabbar Lewis), manage to escape the camp. They split up, not completely willingly, with a group of low-rent gun-happy rednecks in hot pursuit. They are led by Jim Fassel (Ben Foster), whose silence does not mask his cruelty. He treats his hunting dogs far better than the enslaved men who work under his supervision.

Tuning in:How to watch the FIFA World Cup 2022 from the comfort of your couch

Smith's performance is unusually quiet. It's powerful and effective

Peter’s plan is to get to Baton Rouge, where the Union Army has taken hold. This will require an escape straight through the swamp, and its many life-threatening dangers, which are not limited to an action-movie alligator. There are also dangers outside the swamp, as Peter is reminded when a little girl sees him dart across her family’s property.

“Runner!” she screams, again and again, in a Southern accent that somehow makes her cries even more profane. (“Runnah!” is how she says it.) It’s maybe the most powerful scene in the film, terrifying and heartbreaking, a reminder of how the notion of white supremacy can be passed on like a hereditary trait from one generation to the next.

It’s also, without explicitly saying so, a reminder that the trait continues to exist in far too many people today.

Fuqua is fond of overhead shots that soar over the swamp, over the plantation and camp, over the battlefield littered with ruined bodies. The color is drained from the film, though splashes show up from time to time. It’s more interesting than powerful.

Smith, meanwhile, gives a subdued performance, appropriate for the film and the character — and something different from what we usually see from the actor. Peter silently goes about his business, which is the business of trying to stay alive.

If only the film took its cue from Peter, and trusted the power of the material to do the talking.

Maricopa incoming:Garrett Archer, ABC 15's data guru, talks about Kari Lake, 'Maricopa incoming' and more

'Emancipation' 3 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Antoine Fuqua.

Cast: Will Smith, Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa.

Rating: R for strong racial violence, disturbing images and language.

How to watch: In theaters and on Apple TV+ on Dec. 9.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Emancipation' review: Will Smith's performance is quiet and powerful